Alex McLeish reveals he'll need old friend Brendan Rodgers' help to get Scotland back to their best

Podcast: Record Celtic 16 February 2018 The new national boss will start doing his rounds of clubs this week, building and rebuilding the crucial partnerships which will determine every squad he picks.

But with Hoops chief executive Peter Lawwell’s fierce criticism of the end-of-season tour to Peru and Mexico – the final nail in Stewart Regan’s coffin – already seeing him starting from the back of the grid it’s the one working relationship which will have to function above all others in his two-year tenure.

Then again McLeish revealed he unknowingly gave himself a head start at Birmingham.

Alex McLeish in his Birmingham days (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)

He said: “Brendan is a smart guy, he came to see me when I was at Birmingham.

“He was out of work at the time and he asked to come in. I think we had his younger brother working at the time in the scouting system.

“I could tell at the time he was going to reach a good level, with the level of his analysis and the way he saw the game.

“We’re going to need a rapport with the players and a common-sense approach with the clubs though so I think it’s wise not to dictate to anyone at this moment and in general.

“And as far as the games go I’m not criticising the decision to choose those games, we now just have to make that a really good trip.

“It may be fantastic for me to see other players playing.”

(Image: PA)

The chances are he may have to make do with very few Celts on view on that trip with Champions League qualifiers looming in early July.

And among those he doesn’t feel he needs to see more of is Tierney. But he insists when he does play him it’ll be in his natural role on the left.

He said: “He’s not a youngster for us any more, he’s a bloody big, experienced player. God, what a talent.

“Where do I stand with the conundrum over him and Andy Robertson? We’ll have to give them a half each.

“Seriously, I know he’s played at centre-half for Brendan and Scotland and Gordon Strachan played him at right-back too, and he played to a good level there. Whether ultimately we do that? Personally I think it might not be the right thing for him going forward.”

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Going forward is all Eck is interested in despite the criticism by many his appointment is perceived as a backwards step.

As far as he’s concerned though he’ll embrace the new order put in place by Malky Mackay.

The performance director gutted the backroom staff ahead of the November friendly with Holland, bringing in new physios and analysts from Rangers and Celtic and as far afield as Canada.

He also took the chance to move the squad’s operation to Oriam in Edinburgh rather than Gordon Strachan’s preferred base at the plush Mar Hall hotel in the shadow of the Erskine Bridge.

McLeish has no problem inheriting all of that.

He said: “I don’t think there was anything I needed from the SFA.

(Image: REUTERS)

“I knew what Malky Mackay was doing behind the scenes. I’ve done business with Malky in the past when he was at Watford. He loaned one of my young players and sent me monthly reports on him and they were thorough and informative.

“I thought he was really good with the science and analytical stuff.

“What he’s doing now at Oriam, the staff he’s brought in, a lot of these things can help us with the attention to detail and marginal gains. So I’d be happy to inherit that.

“When you have a bunch of guys coming from clubs then you want to make them feel as if this is fantastic and professional and this is what we get at clubs.

“I know Malky has Oriam up and running and I won’t ignore it.

“Where I have to make my own choices is my immediate coaches, a trainer and another coach.”

McLeish’s first game in charge comes on March 23 at Hampden against Costa Rica – a name which instantly sends shivers down his spine. At 31, he was part of the backbone of a Scotland team at the World Cup finals in Italia 90 which was humiliated by the little Central American underdog.

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He winced: “I remember I was on the front of the Daily Record, which was a brilliant front page – or at least when I look back on it now it was brilliant!

“It was a big picture of the world with the words ‘Stop the World, we want to get aff’ written on it. Then there were a few faces which had to go and I think I was one of them!

“Fortunately we redeemed ourselves against the Swedes but it was a very apprehensive game.”

There’s a lesson in there somewhere though – in those days losing at a finals was a catastrophe.

“These days most of the Tartan Army would give their right arm just to be there to be humiliated.

“You know that after 22 years of not being at a big tournament we would bite your hand off to do it now and everyone would be grateful for an early exit because it would mean we are there. At last.

Alex McLeish's appointment hasn't impressed everyone

“But in saying that, in those days and even now, you always have to be ambitious. When you got there you tried to get to the next stage even if we never quite made that.

“Just to get to three finals in my playing days was a fantastic feeling.”

McLeish may have only been given a contract for one campaign but, including the Nations League fixtures against Albania and Israel, he’ll have 10 games to prepare for the Euro 2020 campaign proper – the equivalent of his entire previous tenure.

And he admitted: “That is quite comforting. It is really good for me to get that breathing space, although I don’t like calling it that because I want to hit the ground running.

“I want to get the Tartan Army on side and let them see these guys have learned a lot in their last campaign and are moving up a gear.

“So the coming friendlies and group stage for the Nations League will be a chance to do that.”